A few posts ago I mentioned the upcoming Cobweb Club with the theme “Undead”. Well – I went…and so did a spooktacular bunch of other assorted monsters, demons and ghouls. Wanna see some fab pics? Read on…

For my inspiration, I went no further than the fabulous “Hush” episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer – and those creepy silent hovering men, the Gentlemen. Anyone who has ever seen this episode remembers them – usually with a shudder! I wasn’t going to slavishly copy them; I still wanted to go as a female, and keep my hair, but be Gentleman-inspired. (See my Gothic Pinterest board for my inspirations).

While I didn’t have time to make a custom prosthesis to cover my brows and make my face more skull-like, I did manage to customise a mask I had, and with the help of special effects make-up, transform myself.

It is no secret that just about my fave aussie alternative club is the Cobweb Club, which plays goth, deathrock, punk, post-punk and wave. OK so I may be a little biased, having DJ’d at a few, but it is one of those events I just can’t miss. And neither should you!!

I’m already very excited, and have spent many hours researching my costume/look. I’ve been reading up on theatrical make-up – not just cosmetics, but 3d effects like wounds, wrinkles and creating skin abnormalities with prosthetics. If it works out, I’ll do a tutorial. If not…well, I’ll post pics of my miserable attempt. For now, I’m envisioning something like a female version of the Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer…but we’ll see 😉

But back to the club night itself. For a peek at what I and others have worn, here are some photos from previous Cobweb Clubs.

Hellooo lovelies! I know I’ve been off in the ethernet once again….but I have been making way for a new website that will better integrate some of my interests, provide a better service and be more informative, leaving this one for my personal blogging. I’ve had so many people ask me, “where’s good to go for alternative music & culture in Japan/Singapore/Malaysia/India/Cambodia?”etc and usually I cobble together a facebook reply with lists, and point them towards my blog and certain tags.

I had a lightbulb moment a few weeks ago (drinking beer and watching something like Nat Geo or or TLC on foxtel), that there ought to be a website that alternative type people can check out, to look up where’s cool to go in each city. Now, there certainly exist numerous websites that cover their own city or country and in great depth, along with other sites that do all of Asia but with only glancing references to the alternative scenes there (like Lonely Planet or certain parts of CNN).

There are also those wesbites dedicated to their music style, such as Punk or Dark Alternative, and they cover off artists, gigs and scenes all over the world – but only in their genre. But how to bring these into the one place? While necessarily sacrificing the detail and depth of a genre-specific website, I believe there is value in putting together on one site, posts that link people to the sorts of places they’d like to visit when travelling in Asia, of course providing links to those more detailed sites for those who want to read more.

Anyway, that’s the vision, and that’s where Alt Scene Asia comes in. I’d like to cover alternative music scenes such as punk, post-punk, goth, deathrock, rockabilly, psychobilly, maybe industrial and just weird shit, as well as fashion, food, art & culture. In some places, just finding a place that plays *rock* is a battle, where everywhere you go you hear mainstream pop, R&B, urban, and artists like Rihanna blaring at you from every shop or bar. I do not want to cover off that stuff, or mainstream asian genres like K-pop and J-pop. There are enough sites serving them already 😉

So, AltSceneAsia. I’m gathering together a team from various cities and countries to write, because local knowledge is key, and also hoping to have a lot of guest writers. So if you know about a certain city, or know people who do, please drop me a line.

So that’s the place where I’ll do more informational posts, not that there won’t still be some here, but this blog will more be my personal experiences while travelling (as it always has been), alternative events etc here in Sydney, and my fashion and style inspirations.

In other exciting news, I’m off to Japan again! I haven’t been there since last November, and really need an update to stay current. Plus, I just can’t wait to go back 😉 It also looks like I’ll have a quick mini-vacay to Myanmar with hubby the month after…so will hopefully get some local knowledge of the punk scene there, as well as just holidaying.

And now back to the website, to get it passable before promoting it. I’m no code monkey, and the tweaking is taking aaaaages!

I may have left this a little late to promote, but tomorrow night is the premiere of the Cobweb Club in its new premises at the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville. Woohoo! It’s 5 minutes walk from my house – score! This time around I’m not DJing…but that’s good, cos I can spend time on my hair, make-up & costume beforehand…and drink the bar dry! (not that I’m encouraging immature behaviour). EDIT: I did indeed DJ that night..3rd time now!

I’ll let the Cobweb Club spruik itself:

Calling all creatures from the Black Lagoon! Sydney’s only dedicated goth rock, punk, deathrock and post-punk club is back, and we’re bigger and better than ever! And at $10, it’s a bloody bargain!

On this night, we’ll be transforming our venue into a B-Grade Horror Movie delight, so start planning your ooky, spooky, creepy, crawly, nightmarish costumes now! There will be prizes for the best (and most creative) outfits, so brush up on your knowledge of things that go bump in the night…

We’re also excited to bring you something that rarely happens in goth clubs any more… vinyl DJing! Two of our DJs will be playing a midnight versus set of new and classic goth, punk and deathrock tracks. Come and have a dance to records that might be older than you are!

This time round, we’ve got the keys to one of Sydney’s newest venues, with an airconditioning system that will leave you as chilled as the grave, despite the summer heat. It has over 4 million dollars of sound, lighting equipment and venue design, and best of all, it’s right off King St in Newtown.

Well, I somehow missed my blog’s 2 year anniversary recently – as in, last month, on October 7th!

Life has rather been getting in the way, and admittedly at times I’ve been questioning what direction to take or whether to continue. Looking at my very first post, “The Tokyo Obsession“, the subject shows me that while some things change, others don’t.

As in, I’m still obsessed with Tokyo, and am flying back there in 1 week. In my low-key way I’ve been keeping up with a few things there and have things to attend, such as the opening of new Alternative Club “Ground Heaven”.

All of the artists sound interesting (including DJ Raveman from Aural Vampire), but it is Steampunk band Strange Artifact that has really caught my eye. I don’t know of any other Japanese steampunk bands, and it is refreshing to see a band doing something other than the usual visual kei! I’ll let you know how they are when I’ve seen them live.

Strange Artifact recently featured on the Steampunk compilation Pergasia Music, The Lost Journals Volume 1, alongside known talent such as Abney Park and Vernian Process. This was released on October 13, so it’s hot off the press, so to speak! And be heartened, dear budget-conscious readers, for it is FREE! Download at your earliest convenience.

Another of Artism’s projects, the Alamode Markets, was recently held on October 15

Alamode Markets are a great place to nab one-offs from emerging designers in the gothic and lolita fashion field. See more from this post, which I wrote a few years ago when I visitedthe markets for the first time.

You can read about the recent day here in the goth loli blog, and more events from the organiser D’s Valentine can be found at Artism.

There’s Kozi!! (ex-Malice Mizer), the Candy Spooky Theater, Velvet Eden, and of course Auto-Mod and Dj Chihiro. What a night!

But wait!! Whilst finding the poster for that one, I saw that the very week before there’s the Tokyo Dark Castle vs Rituals night! The Rituals part of the night means that not only will Kenzo’s band Gabriels Stiletto be playing, but his fashion line Rituals will be there for the buying, as well as Pure One Corset Works. Hmm…better take some extra cash then!

I’ll be hitting the Shinjuku Marz both Saturdays and having a super bumper time basically. OK, so rescheduling my trip meant I missed Japan Fashion Week, but to have these fab clubbing nights whilst I’m there makes me very happy 🙂

As long as there are cool things like this going on, I’ll be reporting on them. So, though I may not be as prolific as I used to be blog-writing wise, the Fashionate Traveller hasn’t hung up her travelling boots just yet, and will be around for a while to come 🙂